Communication and flexibility key to improved workforce consultation

The Construction Confederation (CC) has called for greater communication and flexibility as key steps towards achieving effective workforce consultation on health and safety.

Speaking at a workshop organised to explore the practical obstacles to workforce consultation, CC chairman Trevor Walker said: "Communication and good health and safety are inextricably linked. Honest and practical dialogue about the obstacles to safer and healthier sites is a fundamental precondition for success.

"There can be nothing more absurd than seeking to improve health and safety without involving those most at risk."

He said that the CC emphasised the importance of workforce involvement in day-to-day health and safety whenever possible. Guidance on the subject had been issued with a Consultation Toolkit, which set out a range of consultation approaches used with success amongst member companies.

These included induction arrangements, method statement briefings, whistle blowing procedures, and direct approaches to employees, as well as the use of safety reps and safety committees.

Walker added: "There is recognition from our members that workers have to be involved, actively and without fear of discrimination, if we are to meet our ambitious commitments to improve.  We must also be open minded about what we mean by 'consulting the workforce'. The acid test must be 'will it work', and we must not get bogged down in old arguments about particular approaches.

"Our goal ought to be that on any site, at any time, a worker can feel secure in the knowledge that identifying a risk and suggesting corrective action will be welcomed and acted upon.

"If we work to remove the present obstacles, which is the purpose of this workshop, then we need to get away from over reliance on the use of intermediaries, and have an ongoing dialogue every day, whenever necessary, directly with our greatest asset, the workforce."